Frank Lloyd Wright hired a hundred Women-- Go Frank, Go Frank!

When I first started studying Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology, I just adored Frank Lloyd Wright. For all of the obvious reasons: Falling Water! Be real I loved all of his architecture.

Falling Water

I learned here at SCAD that he knew how to do amazing things with space and windows. His floor to ceiling length windows were beautifully designed to catch the light and were known as "light boxes". While allowing the light in from the outside it also provided great amounts of privacy.

Robie House

He fancied the idea of a central hearth which was a symbol of family and spiritual values which he took quite seriously. Even though much of his style seemed to imitate Japanese Architecture, he was loathe to admit this because it conflicted with his sense of religious purity. The hearths were attributes of his arts and crafts style. Often times the stairways would wind or curl around the hearth leading to an upstairs level where you would experience something altogether different. From the entry way you are in a state of negotiation between contraction and expansion and upstairs you are completely unrestricted and free.

He designed homes in the Northeast United States in Suburbs of Chicago and Wisconsin and in the prairies, like the Robie House and Taliesin. The Robie house is low to the ground with a banded design around it that creates a stylized effect that is clean and neat. The entrance and the door are obscured from sight so that you must walk up and approach the house to know how to enter. This is supreme privacy. The Roof is flat and low and is pleasing to see in conjunction with the prairies and the smooth plains. His plan was always to bring nature organically in the home environment.

What I appreciate best about Frank Lloyd Write, albeit I have learned some things that make me a little less fond, was that he was gave one hundred women a chance to work with him and for him in his Architectural Firm. Taliesin was another opportunity for women, a school set up for men and women to learn how to become architects and they did all manner of chores and responsibilities around the school without his simply setting the women to the cooking and cleaning chores. Women were responsible for lifting, moving, hauling, building, drafting, the very same exact duties that were given to the men.

The first woman that worked with Frank Lloyd Write was Marion Lucy Mahoney Griffin (1871-1961) who graduated from MIT. Frank Lloyd Wright would allow her to draw up his designs including the Robie House, so the way that we could tell which designs hers were by the open windows that she would draw in the plans. This was a technique that was uniquely hers and that she kept with her when she later married and worked with her husband. The women who worked with FLW were given a wonderful opportunity to learn and train under one of the most renown architects. I am sure they were paid quite little, but the point was that they were receiving a living on the job education that money could not buy and the support of a Senior Architect. As a student, it helps to find a mentor and a friend who can make a way for you. Wright was this for all these women.